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December 8, 1987 Page 9
Racial Tensions Erupt Across Nation
by Mike O’Keeffe
Liberal
continued from p. 11
markets and at least reducing
international tensions.
So (no big surprise here) I am
pretty strongly in favor of the
new INF treaty. Not only be­cause
it removes a few more
nukes from the field and puts
'em back in your kitchen
microwave where they be­long,
but because I think it’s a
great way to help out the new
Soviet leader—case of enlight­ened
self-interest. In general,
I guess supporting the treaty is
just a way of showing that I’m
(to quote the sagacious Monty
Python) “pro-woods things
and anti-bad things.”
And for those of you who
thought I said soap opera in­stead
of soapbox, we now
return you to All My Chi l­dren.
Conservative
continued from p.11
government claims it does not
have the money. I f America
should be attacked, let it be
for strategic and not tactical
purposes. There are a lot more
important things to spend tax
money on than weapons.
The INF treaty will be
signed sometime this week. It
is a step in the right direction
of peace and humanity. But it
is only a baby step compared
to what our society should be
accomplishing. Let our lead­ers
not sit back and pat each
other’s backs for what they
have done—there is a lot more
to do. And let us not celebrate
a wonderful event of good
will until a wonderful event
T .O .O .L .S . f o r S u c c e s s
Black students who choose St.
Mary’s College as freshmen feel
they have made the right choice
according to retention statistics
released by the college’s former
affirmative action officer,
Roberta Kaskel.
St. Mary’s, which has had the
highest retention rate of black
students among all state colleges
and universities, expects 82 per
cent of its black freshmen from
1986 to return to the college this
fall. That figure compares to an
expected 79 per cent retention
rate for the freshman class
overall.
The statistic is even more
significant in light of the fact
that the freshman class of 1986
had the largest ever contingent
of black students at St. Mary’s -
- 9.2 per cent of the class of 292
students.
“In general, high retention
rates mean greater student sat­isfaction
with the college,” says
Kaskel. “That means that stu-dentshave
a positive experience
both in and out of the class­room.”
“Those positive experiences
don’t just happen by them­selves,”
Kaskel continues. “St.
Mary’s has a very pro-active
approach to help students ad-
Racial tensions on many
American campuses seem to
have escalated again in recent
weeks, but some observers think
the incidents that have caused
the tensions are less “overt” and
violent than the headline-grab­bing
attacks of the 1986-87
school year.
Minority students at
Tompkins-Cortland Commu­nity
College and the universi­ties
of Illinois and Indiana,
among other places, have filed
complaints of racial tensions
since September.
The worst incident oc­curred
at the University of
Pennsylvania, where 5 black
students allegedly physically
attacked 2 Asian students the
first week in October.
Campus leaders never­theless
say the nature of most of
the racial confrontations has
changed since last year, when
often-physical tensions erupted
at Columbia, Duke, The Cita­del,
Texas, Colorado, Massachu­setts
and other campuses.
Minority students at
some schools, though, have or­ganized
in defense, threatening
retribution of school officials
don’t move swiftly to discipline
racist behavior.
“I f you engage in racist
activities,” warned Tanaquil
Jones of the Concerned Black
Students of Columbia, “ you’re
gonna have to deal with the
justice of the streets.”
“The degree to which
things are improving relates to
the direct efforts by blacks and
other Third World students and
their allies to smash racism,”
said University of Illinois-Chi-cago
student Joe Iosbaker, a
member of the Progressive Stu­dent
Network (PSN), a leftist
national political group.
‘‘Racists, white chauvin­ists
and white supremists have
been forced to watch them­selves.”
Racism on many cam­puses
has “been driven under­ground,”
maintained Pat
Kearns, a member of the Un i­versity
of Iowa’s PSN chapter.
“But I don’t think the
climate has changed,” said
Kearns. “The overtness may
have. But there’s no change in
attitude.”
“People are now aware
of overt incidents,” noted Willie
Terry, a City University of New
York/Medgar Evers College
just to college through personal
contact between students, fac­ulty,
and staff inside and out­side
the classroom.”
TOOLS - Taking On Opportu­nities
for Learning Success -
funded by a grant from the
Maryland State Board of Higher
Education, was an important
factor in their adjustment to
college and their decision to
return.
Michael Freeman, Director of
Residence Life at St. Mary’s and
director of TOOLS, described
student. “But subtle racism still
exists. It ’s a cycle. It goes
underground, then comes up.”
“Overt racism is down,”
added David Moore, president
of the University of Massachu­setts
Black Student Union. “I t ’s
just shifted to a more superfi­cial
level.”
For example, at Indiana
University, the Muslim Student
Association says a fraternity
party held Sept. 26 degraded
Arab and Moslem culture and
beliefs. The Phi Kappa Psi
“Arabian Knights” dance per­petuated
insulting stereotypes,
the group says.
A brochure on long-dis­tance
love affairs published at
the University of Illinois raised
student ire earlier this fall by
featuring a section of a map
with “ Nigger Mountain” --a
real place in Montana—on it.
The university apologized.
Not all this semester’s
incidents have been as subtle.
Racial slurs were written on a
bathroom mirror and feces-filled
toilets were clogged Oct
22 at the University of Michi­gan.
The custodian responsible
for cleaning the restroom—the
only black who works in the
bui lding—charged her supervi­sor
did it to punish her for
union activities.
Michigan officials are
investigating the incident.
On Nov. 1, University of
California at Berkeley black
students complained someone
had carved Ku Klux Klan in i ­tials
in a classmate’s dorm door
and that white students had
chased another black student
from a recent football game.
And at New York’s
Tompkins-Cortland Commu­nity
College, 36 Central Ameri­can
exchange students were
transferred en masse after they
were physically and verbally
harassed when 2 foreign stu­dents
were charged with sexual
assault.
“Reaganism takes it’s
toll,” said Sibby Burpee, a
University of Colorado student
leader. “He’s fostered igno­rance
of people of color. His
attitudes have made racism
more allowable.”
“Reagan’s disregard of
people of color breeds this,”
Moore asserted. “The admini­stration
treated Haitian refu­gees
like cattle, putting them in
concentration camps. The pol­icy
towards South Africa said
that black people are expend-the
program as one offering
personal attention self-help
workshops, and opportunities to
learn and grow in cultural and
social settings. “College is d i f ­ferent
from high school no
matter who you are,” he said,
“but when you’re a black city
kid coming to a rural campus
where you’re a minority, there’s
even more to cope with. TOOLS
gave these students the extra
boost they needed, and we’re
going to continue the program
this fall.”
able. This lends a tolerance to
racism.”
Last year at Michigan-long
seen as a tolerant campus-
-black students were threatened
by an anonymous note slipped
under a door that declared an
open-hunting season on blacks,
and a student disc jockey raised
racial tensions by cracking anti­black
jokes on a radio program.
In response, anti-racist
activists at Michigan formed
the United Coalition Against
Racism (UCAR) to combat ra­cism
on the Ann Arbor campus.
“It was more than one inci­dent,”
said Marty Ellington, a
Michigan medical student and
member of UCAR. “There were
a series of attacks, altercations,
and name-calling incidents.
Black people are assaulted as a
whole in a very compact time
period.”
“It was too much at
once,” said Ellington. “People
respond. Over time, blacks may
have become de-sensitized to
racism, but with the increased
tension, we’re no longer willing
to let it slide.”
The slurs and insensi­tivities,
in fact, in recent
months have helped swell the
membership of minority stu­dent
groups, to which students
turn in defense.
Once weakened by apa­thy,
black student unions at
predominantly white campuses
have gained new members and
new energy, organizers re­ported.
Their efforts, moreover,
are fitful ly national. In August,
UCAR and the Concerned
Black Students of Columbia
(CBSC) sponsored a national
conference, attended by repre­sentatives
from 18 colleges, to
build an active, aggressive anti­racist
student movement.
“We put students on
notice,” CBSC’s Jones said.
Black students, she said,
would no longer tolerate inci­dents
like the March, 1987, at­tack
by white Columbia foot­ball
players on a group of black
students.
Asian students at the
University of California-Davis
formed the Asian Pacific Coal i­tion
to confront racism at that
school, promote understanding
of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino,
Vietnamese, and Korean cul­tures,
and assist Asian students
in an often hostile and confus­ing
environment.
Dr. Michael Kiphart, assistant
professor of psychology said
that the program was successful
because it brought students
closer to faculty. Each of the
specially trained faculty in­volved
had four or five fresh­man
advisees. “We met regu­larly
with each student indi­vidually,”
he explained, “ and
then all of us met together at
least once a month. The most
encouraging part of the pro­continued
on page 8

December 8, 1987 Page 9
Racial Tensions Erupt Across Nation
by Mike O’Keeffe
Liberal
continued from p. 11
markets and at least reducing
international tensions.
So (no big surprise here) I am
pretty strongly in favor of the
new INF treaty. Not only be­cause
it removes a few more
nukes from the field and puts
'em back in your kitchen
microwave where they be­long,
but because I think it’s a
great way to help out the new
Soviet leader—case of enlight­ened
self-interest. In general,
I guess supporting the treaty is
just a way of showing that I’m
(to quote the sagacious Monty
Python) “pro-woods things
and anti-bad things.”
And for those of you who
thought I said soap opera in­stead
of soapbox, we now
return you to All My Chi l­dren.
Conservative
continued from p.11
government claims it does not
have the money. I f America
should be attacked, let it be
for strategic and not tactical
purposes. There are a lot more
important things to spend tax
money on than weapons.
The INF treaty will be
signed sometime this week. It
is a step in the right direction
of peace and humanity. But it
is only a baby step compared
to what our society should be
accomplishing. Let our lead­ers
not sit back and pat each
other’s backs for what they
have done—there is a lot more
to do. And let us not celebrate
a wonderful event of good
will until a wonderful event
T .O .O .L .S . f o r S u c c e s s
Black students who choose St.
Mary’s College as freshmen feel
they have made the right choice
according to retention statistics
released by the college’s former
affirmative action officer,
Roberta Kaskel.
St. Mary’s, which has had the
highest retention rate of black
students among all state colleges
and universities, expects 82 per
cent of its black freshmen from
1986 to return to the college this
fall. That figure compares to an
expected 79 per cent retention
rate for the freshman class
overall.
The statistic is even more
significant in light of the fact
that the freshman class of 1986
had the largest ever contingent
of black students at St. Mary’s -
- 9.2 per cent of the class of 292
students.
“In general, high retention
rates mean greater student sat­isfaction
with the college,” says
Kaskel. “That means that stu-dentshave
a positive experience
both in and out of the class­room.”
“Those positive experiences
don’t just happen by them­selves,”
Kaskel continues. “St.
Mary’s has a very pro-active
approach to help students ad-
Racial tensions on many
American campuses seem to
have escalated again in recent
weeks, but some observers think
the incidents that have caused
the tensions are less “overt” and
violent than the headline-grab­bing
attacks of the 1986-87
school year.
Minority students at
Tompkins-Cortland Commu­nity
College and the universi­ties
of Illinois and Indiana,
among other places, have filed
complaints of racial tensions
since September.
The worst incident oc­curred
at the University of
Pennsylvania, where 5 black
students allegedly physically
attacked 2 Asian students the
first week in October.
Campus leaders never­theless
say the nature of most of
the racial confrontations has
changed since last year, when
often-physical tensions erupted
at Columbia, Duke, The Cita­del,
Texas, Colorado, Massachu­setts
and other campuses.
Minority students at
some schools, though, have or­ganized
in defense, threatening
retribution of school officials
don’t move swiftly to discipline
racist behavior.
“I f you engage in racist
activities,” warned Tanaquil
Jones of the Concerned Black
Students of Columbia, “ you’re
gonna have to deal with the
justice of the streets.”
“The degree to which
things are improving relates to
the direct efforts by blacks and
other Third World students and
their allies to smash racism,”
said University of Illinois-Chi-cago
student Joe Iosbaker, a
member of the Progressive Stu­dent
Network (PSN), a leftist
national political group.
‘‘Racists, white chauvin­ists
and white supremists have
been forced to watch them­selves.”
Racism on many cam­puses
has “been driven under­ground,”
maintained Pat
Kearns, a member of the Un i­versity
of Iowa’s PSN chapter.
“But I don’t think the
climate has changed,” said
Kearns. “The overtness may
have. But there’s no change in
attitude.”
“People are now aware
of overt incidents,” noted Willie
Terry, a City University of New
York/Medgar Evers College
just to college through personal
contact between students, fac­ulty,
and staff inside and out­side
the classroom.”
TOOLS - Taking On Opportu­nities
for Learning Success -
funded by a grant from the
Maryland State Board of Higher
Education, was an important
factor in their adjustment to
college and their decision to
return.
Michael Freeman, Director of
Residence Life at St. Mary’s and
director of TOOLS, described
student. “But subtle racism still
exists. It ’s a cycle. It goes
underground, then comes up.”
“Overt racism is down,”
added David Moore, president
of the University of Massachu­setts
Black Student Union. “I t ’s
just shifted to a more superfi­cial
level.”
For example, at Indiana
University, the Muslim Student
Association says a fraternity
party held Sept. 26 degraded
Arab and Moslem culture and
beliefs. The Phi Kappa Psi
“Arabian Knights” dance per­petuated
insulting stereotypes,
the group says.
A brochure on long-dis­tance
love affairs published at
the University of Illinois raised
student ire earlier this fall by
featuring a section of a map
with “ Nigger Mountain” --a
real place in Montana—on it.
The university apologized.
Not all this semester’s
incidents have been as subtle.
Racial slurs were written on a
bathroom mirror and feces-filled
toilets were clogged Oct
22 at the University of Michi­gan.
The custodian responsible
for cleaning the restroom—the
only black who works in the
bui lding—charged her supervi­sor
did it to punish her for
union activities.
Michigan officials are
investigating the incident.
On Nov. 1, University of
California at Berkeley black
students complained someone
had carved Ku Klux Klan in i ­tials
in a classmate’s dorm door
and that white students had
chased another black student
from a recent football game.
And at New York’s
Tompkins-Cortland Commu­nity
College, 36 Central Ameri­can
exchange students were
transferred en masse after they
were physically and verbally
harassed when 2 foreign stu­dents
were charged with sexual
assault.
“Reaganism takes it’s
toll,” said Sibby Burpee, a
University of Colorado student
leader. “He’s fostered igno­rance
of people of color. His
attitudes have made racism
more allowable.”
“Reagan’s disregard of
people of color breeds this,”
Moore asserted. “The admini­stration
treated Haitian refu­gees
like cattle, putting them in
concentration camps. The pol­icy
towards South Africa said
that black people are expend-the
program as one offering
personal attention self-help
workshops, and opportunities to
learn and grow in cultural and
social settings. “College is d i f ­ferent
from high school no
matter who you are,” he said,
“but when you’re a black city
kid coming to a rural campus
where you’re a minority, there’s
even more to cope with. TOOLS
gave these students the extra
boost they needed, and we’re
going to continue the program
this fall.”
able. This lends a tolerance to
racism.”
Last year at Michigan-long
seen as a tolerant campus-
-black students were threatened
by an anonymous note slipped
under a door that declared an
open-hunting season on blacks,
and a student disc jockey raised
racial tensions by cracking anti­black
jokes on a radio program.
In response, anti-racist
activists at Michigan formed
the United Coalition Against
Racism (UCAR) to combat ra­cism
on the Ann Arbor campus.
“It was more than one inci­dent,”
said Marty Ellington, a
Michigan medical student and
member of UCAR. “There were
a series of attacks, altercations,
and name-calling incidents.
Black people are assaulted as a
whole in a very compact time
period.”
“It was too much at
once,” said Ellington. “People
respond. Over time, blacks may
have become de-sensitized to
racism, but with the increased
tension, we’re no longer willing
to let it slide.”
The slurs and insensi­tivities,
in fact, in recent
months have helped swell the
membership of minority stu­dent
groups, to which students
turn in defense.
Once weakened by apa­thy,
black student unions at
predominantly white campuses
have gained new members and
new energy, organizers re­ported.
Their efforts, moreover,
are fitful ly national. In August,
UCAR and the Concerned
Black Students of Columbia
(CBSC) sponsored a national
conference, attended by repre­sentatives
from 18 colleges, to
build an active, aggressive anti­racist
student movement.
“We put students on
notice,” CBSC’s Jones said.
Black students, she said,
would no longer tolerate inci­dents
like the March, 1987, at­tack
by white Columbia foot­ball
players on a group of black
students.
Asian students at the
University of California-Davis
formed the Asian Pacific Coal i­tion
to confront racism at that
school, promote understanding
of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino,
Vietnamese, and Korean cul­tures,
and assist Asian students
in an often hostile and confus­ing
environment.
Dr. Michael Kiphart, assistant
professor of psychology said
that the program was successful
because it brought students
closer to faculty. Each of the
specially trained faculty in­volved
had four or five fresh­man
advisees. “We met regu­larly
with each student indi­vidually,”
he explained, “ and
then all of us met together at
least once a month. The most
encouraging part of the pro­continued
on page 8